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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23135875">Love Is A Flame</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu'>Nununununu</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Chap 1 G-rated, Chap 2 E-rated, Character Study, Cunnilingus, Don't copy to another site, Enthusiastic Consent, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Human/Monster Romance, Late Night Conversations, Multiple Orgasms, Oral Sex, Post-Advent Children (Compilation of FFVII), Rare Pairings, Sharing Body Heat, Slice of Life, Vaginal Sex</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 08:14:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,718</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23135875</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Fighting with him at her side is like a dance with a partner whose steps compliment hers in unexpected ways.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>It’s exhilarating.</i>
</p>
<p>This isn't about that.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Tifa Lockhart/Red XIII | Nanaki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Teratophilia Trade 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/HostisHumaniGeneris/gifts">HostisHumaniGeneris</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>An extra treat for HostisHumaniGeneris. Title from 'Jupiter (Swallow The Moon)' by Jewel.</p>
<p>Chapter 1 is G-rated feelings<br/>Chapter 2 is E-rated smut - follows directly on, but both chapters can be read alone.</p>
<p>(Update: altered title for brevity 23/03)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>“What a day,” Setting aside her empty bottle, Tifa leans back on her gloved hands, fingers digging into the soil and grass as she kicks her legs out in front of her, heels knocking dirt off the cliff edge, inhaling the cool night air that’s so much clearer here looking down on the city compared to when they’re walking those ever busy streets, “What an evening.”</p><p>Next to her, his head on his forepaws, Nanaki opens his eye enough to give her a look that indicates gently amused agreement.</p><p>“What a night,” Curled around his hind legs, the glowing tip of his tail flicks, tracing a brief pattern that sparks in the dark.</p><p>“Definitely,” Tifa brings one of her hands up to idly inspect it, tugging the glove off with her teeth. The leather is scuffed with all the fighting she’s done, her knuckles bruised in a way that only registers when she looks at them.</p><p>“You are unharmed?” There has never been condescension in Nanaki’s voice the entire time she’s known him, unlike some of the men Tifa has encountered. Perhaps more than some of the men. At least until they see her fight.</p><p>She never fights for them. Feeling their eyes on her make her punches more brutal, her kicks harder, until they avert their eyes.</p><p>Fighting with her old friend –</p><p>Feeling his gaze on her, both today and this evening, and now –</p><p>“I’m fine,” Tifa pulls her other glove off also, just to watch him watch her do it, “You?”</p><p>She’d dived into the brawl that had erupted outside the 7th Heaven shortly before closing time, just as she’d broken up several tiffs earlier in the day and had a run in with a number of gang members who soon learned their lesson, but Nanaki had been right there with her and, as resilient as he is, he doesn’t quite have her strength or endurance.</p><p>Agility, yes, he can rival her there for all they move quite differently. Fighting with him at her side is like a dance with a partner whose steps compliment hers in unexpected ways.</p><p>It’s exhilarating.</p><p>“I am unharmed likewise,” Nanaki confirms, “Merely a touch weary.”</p><p>“Mm,” Tifa can’t help but smile a little at how comfortable he looks. He’s nothing like the youth he once was for all his longer lifespan, reminiscent then in some ways of the children back home under Cloud’s watchful eye now, but she still feels a little protective of him nonetheless, in the same way she does of all her loved ones and teammates, “If you want to sleep, I can go.”</p><p>That ochre eye of his opens again from where it has slipped closed.</p><p>“Stay, unless you desire to leave,” Nanaki glances up at the moon emerging low over the horizon and twitches his ears at the breeze, “The night does grow colder.”</p><p>“It is a little chilly,” Tifa confirms, and many a man might choose to comment on her clothing now, as if she dresses in this or that in the hope of garnering such observations and not because she simply likes the look of it for her own sake or because it is practical.</p><p>“I have higher than the average human body heat,” Nanaki rumbles into his forepaws, and there seems nothing sexual or flirty about it, simply a statement of fact and a kindness offered by a friend, “You may warm yourself by sharing it, if you wish.”</p><p>But Tifa had seen the way he’d looked at her earlier. She’s self-aware enough to know that she had been looking at him likewise in return.</p><p>She looks at him now in what light rises up from the city beneath her feet – at the size and shape of his body, the short fur over muscle, not an inch of him wasted. The spikes of his mane and the accessories he wears, each one with a meaning, and the marks and brands that tell stories on his face and limbs.</p><p>He’s her old, dear friend and she loves him for it, but she’s also self-aware enough to know there’s more to it than that. That something else, something deeper, has been building between them for some time.</p><p>“I’d like that,” she accepts gratefully and shifts around towards him as he curves around towards her.</p><p>He is indeed warm as they lean against each other lightly, wonderfully so, and she can feel the thump of his heart beating, and his sides moving as he breathes. It feels very real, very immediate, and judging by the small movements he makes as they curl together, he too is no longer feeling the desire to sleep.</p><p>“Would you –” Tifa murmurs after a while, at the same time as Nanaki starts,</p><p>“Tifa –”</p><p>It’s rare for him to say her name, just as it’s rare for him to have said as much as he has so far tonight. Tifa has to bite down on her smile, she likes the sound of it in his calm, steady voice so much.</p><p>“You first,” she gestures for him to go ahead and gently insists when he demurs, “Go ahead.”</p><p>“No, please, you speak first,” Nanaki nonetheless dips his head politely to indicate she should precede him, “I would like to hear what you have to say.”</p><p>There’s something there – something like restrained hope in his tone, but with no expectation, and that again is so different and so welcome to the presumptions of some strangers and acquaintances Tifa has at times grown tired of dealing with.</p><p>There’s really nothing quite like being respected. Like having his respect.</p><p>She respects him just as much in return. Conscious that the same people who look at her and who only see her body so often look at him and only see his.</p><p>The reality of Nanaki’s gentle nature is so appealing, as is the reminder that he is also wild. The duality of it makes her heart beat harder. He is no animal, but likewise he is no human.</p><p>And the look he gives her again – not quite confident enough to do so directly, but not concealing it either – is like he thinks she hung that moon in the sky.</p><p>“May I touch you?” Tifa therefore feels safe in asking, one of her bare hands half raised, an offer that doesn’t in any way insist. She longs to learn for herself the contours of his face, the outline of his remaining eye, the softness of his mane and ears under her fingers.</p><p>“May I touch you in return?” Nanaki dares to ask, and brings his muzzle up to whisper over her palm, as they answer each other in tandem –</p><p>“You may.”</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sneaks in a second chap full of smut... XD</p>
<p>(Update: oops, edited a couple of typos).</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>Touching him is even more thrilling than she expects.</p>
<p>Tifa slides her fingers through the fur at the side of Nanaki’s muzzle, laughing a little as whiskers brush over the sensitive inside of her wrist.</p>
<p>“I am sorry if they are rough against your skin,” Nanaki reacts at once when her hand involuntarily twitches.</p>
<p>“No need to apologise,” Tifa starts to protest, to point out that the touch in fact tickles, but then he’s angling his head towards her hand, mouthing at her palm and fingers as if seeking to soothe her, and the words try to trip over themselves in her mouth.</p>
<p>“You won’t hurt me,” she informs him instead.</p>
<p>Nanaki’s gaze, when he lifts it to hers, is very serious, “I have no wish to.” </p>
<p>“I know,” Tifa finds herself smiling, for she <em>does</em> know this, just as she knows she has no wish to hurt him either – it feels as if there is something very brittle about him suddenly, just as it feels like there is something suspended within her like a held breath trapped behind her ribs.</p>
<p>“Tifa –” How she loves the sound of her name in his voice; the look in his eye as he weighs up what to do next. Whether to act.</p>
<p>Wanting to, she’s certain of it.</p>
<p>Tifa might not feel like she can wait very much longer – doesn’t <em>want </em>to wait very much longer, in honesty; Cloud kept her hanging on and hanging on for <em>years</em> in one way or another and she’s not about to have any more of men – of males of any kind – doing <em>that. </em>Still, she’s willing to give Nanaki another minute, another few seconds, before she takes the decision out of his paws –</p>
<p>He licks her.</p>
<p>“Oh –” It’s a warm rasp of his tongue against her fingertips, less searching than she was expecting, and it makes Tifa startle just a bit and gasp, even though this new touch isn’t ticklish this time, “Nanaki –”</p>
<p>“Is this all right?” His gaze remains solemn and steady on hers as he licks her again – her palm, tracing the places where his muzzle brushed. His nose whispering over her inner wrist; nostrils flaring as he inhales her scent.</p>
<p>The thought of this is like a punch of sensation to the gut. Her other hand flutters towards her chest in an unconscious gesture Tifa forgets herself enough to make as she sits up straighter.</p>
<p>“Yes,” There’s no hesitation in her reply. Regaining control over herself, she puts her free hand down gently upon his mane, fingers not quite burrowing in, “How about this?”</p>
<p>“You may touch me however you wish,” Nanaki bows his head towards her, increasing the contact, and so Tifa buries her fingers in amongst the long strands of his heavy mane, luxuriating in the feeling of it, shifting her legs to one side to allow her better access as she slips her fingers behind a pointed ear.</p>
<p>“<em>Ah</em> –” Nanaki responds immediately, pushing almost hard against her hand, bowing Tifa backwards a bit because she lets him – she’s strong enough that she could make herself immovable if she chose to, even against an opponent of his size. She could use his shape and weight against him quite easily, twist herself free; hook a foot into place under him and roll herself backwards to throw him off.</p>
<p>“Nanaki –”</p>
<p>Nanaki’s no opponent. And Tifa wants to do quite the opposite of any of that.</p>
<p>Rubbing behind his ear until he’s rumbling encouragement, Tifa cups his jaw with her other hand, enjoying the feel of it, the length and breadth of his snout; stroking the corner of his mouth with her thumb where there’s a glimpse of sharp teeth. Drinking in the differences between them even as she coaxes him ever nearer, her body singing with the proximity as he rests a forepaw either side of her thighs, her knees grazing his underside.</p>
<p>This is the closest they’ve ever been to one another. Tifa would only have to lie back and he’d be looming over her.</p>
<p>“May I?” Nanaki waits for Tifa to hum her acquiescence, his muzzle cool and welcome against the inside of her wrist, her elbow, the crook of her shoulder; the places where her skin is bare.</p>
<p>“<em>Yes</em>,” She tips her head to one side for him and then those teeth of his are grazing the length of her throat, his breath gusting hot down the front of her clothes. Her nipples crinkle with want for him, her feet restless, her belly tight.</p>
<p>She can’t stop touching him, can’t stop reaching for as much of Nanaki as she can, running her hands over the solid strength of his shoulders, feeling muscles move under fur. He laps at her jaw, her cheekbone, the curve of her ear, and it feels so simply <em>good</em>, Tifa’s rolling down onto her back in the grass under him before making the conscious decision to do so.</p>
<p>“Tifa,” Nanaki’s tail whisks behind them as he visibly makes himself pause and hold back, “What do you want?”</p>
<p>“This,” Tifa tugs at him without intending to; forces herself not to clutch, “This, and so much <em>more</em>. Nanaki. What do <em>you</em> want?”</p>
<p>He looks down at her for so long she can hardly take it, but she sees it – she sees the moment his want outweighs his habitual tendency to hold back.</p>
<p>“If you would be amenable,” He’s always so polite with her, as well; there’s no expectation there even now. Hope, though – yes, there’s definitely <em>hope</em> there, as well as plenty of<em> want</em>. “I would like it if you removed your clothes.”</p>
<p>A shiver chases over Tifa’s skin as she feels her grin sharpen, “Are you going to help?”</p>
<p>“If you will permit me.”</p>
<p>“Of course,” They get them off her together, Tifa fumbling with straps and zips with fingers that grow uncharacteristically clumsier with each inch of skin Nanaki tastes. And with each inch of skin she feels him shed another layer of hesitation, until she’s finally shimmying out of her panties beneath him, breath coming fast with anticipation, and then he’s right there once she’s kicked them off –</p>
<p>The sight and feel of his head between her legs is breathtaking, and the first lap of his tongue there is – is –</p>
<p>“Oh –!” Tifa’s stomach tightens hard.</p>
<p>“All right?” There’s an edge to his voice – he’s still holding back, but finding it more difficult.</p>
<p>“Yes,” Tifa widens her thighs; gets a hand down to guide herself open for him, “Yes – Nanaki. <em>Please</em> –”</p>
<p>The lick he gives her then gets right up amongst the folds of her labia, a little rougher than anything she’s felt there before, warm and slick and wonderful enough that her heels skid, gouging up soil.</p>
<p>“Ah –!”</p>
<p>She’s known men to back off then, to bow out, to present her with their dicks at such a point, as if giving her a few seconds of their mouths is supposedly enough. To act as if they’ve done her a great favour by condescending to do that much. To presume that she must want to have her mouth on their bodies more than she wants theirs on hers.</p>
<p>Nanaki doesn’t do this.</p>
<p>“Tifa,” Making a sound that’s very much like a purr, he licks his way up the length of her again until his tongue finds her clit, Tifa’s whole body jerking with it when he huffs. The look in his eye is heated, fervent, gazing up at her as he seems to relax into it now he’s ascertained her enjoyment –</p>
<p>As he sets out to map the shape of her sex, snuffling over her folds, a touch of teeth that could so easily be deadly making her gasp as they so gently graze against her mons, the velvet feeling of his fur against her inner thighs making her squirm.</p>
<p>Then, with another glance up at her as if to check that she’s ready, he <em>really</em> sets in and gets to work.</p>
<p>“Hah – hah –” Tifa’s clutching at her thighs with both hands after a couple of minutes, holding herself as far open as she can for him as he enthusiastically investigates. Kicking her heels up over his shoulders as he licks over her twitching vagina again and again before focusing on her clit.</p>
<p>“Ah!” An orgasm rockets through her like this and then another when he seems to work out that this particular area is especially effective. Tifa’s shaking, her voice cracking as that second one follows hard on the heels of the first. She’s never had anyone go down on her for so long or so thoroughly, and the fact that he seems entirely enthusiastic about it is - is –</p>
<p>“<em>Hmm</em>,” He hums against her clit, a sound of pure appreciation, and Tifa nearly squeezes his head too hard between her thighs as it sends her over into a third orgasm, something she’s only ever managed when alone with the help of her toys before.</p>
<p>“Na –” She can hardly get his name out, let alone anything else, “Nanaki –”</p>
<p>“Tifa?” His muzzle glistens with her slickness when he pulls his head back, the sight of it making her pant, “What can I – anything –”</p>
<p>He sounds so het up and so eager to please something inside her feels like it melts.</p>
<p>“<em>This</em> –” Tifa lets go of herself in order to tuck her hands under him and utilises her strength by simply bracing herself a bit, tugging him up swiftly until he’s on top of her again.</p>
<p>There are men she’s encountered who would get offended and huffy with her for doing such a thing, as if she were somehow emasculating them. In contrast Nanaki’s eye goes very dark.</p>
<p>“I want you inside me,” Tifa therefore tells him plainly. She wants him in her mouth just as he’s been in hers, wants to run her hands over his belly, to see what he’ll do if she plays with his tail. But for now –</p>
<p>For now she’s feeling greedy, desperate for him, for <em>more</em> of him, for everything she can get. She thrusts her body up until she can feel the hardness of him press against her hip and it makes them both gasp.</p>
<p>“You are certain?” His voice is ragged now, self-control fraying when she arches her back to press yet further up, increasing the contact. He’s <em>large</em>, his cock longer and thicker than anything she’s experienced before, and Tifa feels herself leaking onto her thighs with want for it.</p>
<p>“<em>Yes</em>, I’m certain,” If she didn’t want him inside her while leaning over her like this, now would be the time that she’d place her hand flat on his chest and push him over onto his back, ride him hard.</p>
<p>Next time around, if he’s up for it, she'll do that. After she’s had him in her mouth.</p>
<p>First things first, though.</p>
<p>“Are you?” Tifa challenges, because she’s not the only one whose consent is important here, “Is this position all right?”</p>
<p>“<em>Very</em>,” Nanaki answers to both, ochre eye still almost black, and then the head of his dick is rubbing up against her vagina as he’s working his hips that bit, hind legs bowing lower against her, forepaws scrabbling in the soil.</p>
<p>“Here,” Tifa tilts her own hips up to help him, and then – and then –</p>
<p>He slides into her so easily, so awesomely it takes her breath away. The stretch is <em>magnificent</em> –</p>
<p>“Tifa!” He’s trembling.</p>
<p>“Do it,” Tifa clenches her sex down around him when he goes to draw back, “<em>Fuck me</em> –”</p>
<p>He does. Bless him, he takes her at her word and he does – Growling, Nanaki plunges into her, his control gone enough now that he doesn’t attempt to go slow. Tifa doesn’t want him to – she pushes up at him, grappling with him, slinging an arm around his shoulders to hold his head down against hers, each of themselves contorting themselves to make their bodies match.</p>
<p>And they make it work.</p>
<p>Tifa’s close to howling with the pleasure of how brilliantly he’s fucking her when he comes, the feel of it so incredible inside her it makes her shudder over into a fourth orgasm, as does the fact Nanaki bites down on her shoulder, not enough to break the skin even now, not enough to hurt, but the fact that he’s marking her makes her go hot and shuddery all over.</p>
<p>“<em>Nanaki!</em>”</p>
<p>“<em>T-Tifa –</em>”</p>
<p>She has to get her hands on him. Squirming out from under him the moment he pulls back, Tifa puts her shoulder into Nanaki’s and pushes, tipping him over onto his side with a smirk at his surprised yelp.</p>
<p>“Let me?” It turns into a moan of appreciation when Tifa gets her hands and mouth down where she wants them, rubbing and stroking and working at that great cock of his until he’s hard all over again and shuddering with it, claws prickling tantalisingly at her skin as he paws at her, teeth nibbling her shoulder when she has him riled up enough that he surges upwards and back over her.</p>
<p>“T-Tifa, you feel so good – oh – <em>Tifa</em> –” Tifa abruptly wants him trapped between her thighs and so that’s where she guides him, groaning when the thick shaft of his dick delves between the lips of her sex to rub up against her clit when she angles herself just right. Not penetrating her, this time; just rocking against her like that.</p>
<p>“Yes <em>– </em>Nanaki<em>, yes</em>,” Tifa pushes back up against him; laughing a little with the sheer joy of just how good it feels by the time Nanaki spills over a second time.</p>
<p>“Ah – oh –” She’s never heard him so besides himself before, his sides heaving as he collapses gently partly on top of her. Careful even now not to rest on her with too much of his weight. “Tifa, I never imagined – never thought – <em>thank you</em>.”</p>
<p>“Come here,” She can take it. Curling as much of her body as she can around him, Tifa holds him against her regardless of how heavy he is, “Don’t thank me. That was –” There aren’t really the words to sum up the way her body is singing. Tifa allows herself a satisfied sigh, “Amazing.”</p>
<p>“It was delightful,” Nanaki settles his head between her breasts, relaxing on top of her with a pleased sigh of his own. Trusting her to know her limits. “While you might not want me to speak of my gratitude, I would appreciate it if you will allow me to show you it after we have rested.”</p>
<p>The emphasis he places on ‘show’ is deliberate, as is the semi-circle a claw traces over her bare hip.</p>
<p>“I suppose,” Tifa finds herself smiling helplessly, not bothering to make more than a poor pretence at reluctance, “If you insist.”</p>
<p>“Never that,” There’s warmth as well as fondness in Nanaki’s voice, and all the care he always shows her in the nuzzle he gives her cheek, “Only what you are willing to give.”</p>
<p>“Same here,” Unable to keep her smile from quirking into a grin, Tifa smooths her hand down his belly to find his cock, delighted when it jerks in her hand. It makes her think of all the many plans she has for it – and him. All the possibilities they can try out.</p>
<p>Yes, there’s plenty she's willing to give where he’s concerned.</p>
<p>“I look forward to learning of anything you have in mind once I have properly expressed my appreciation,” There’s a certain glint in Nanaki’s eye, she's sure of it.</p>
<p>“Mm, you know what?” Licking her lips, Tifa relishes the way his gaze immediately drops to her mouth, “I’m sure I can think of a few things.”</p>
<p> </p>
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